Monday, May 31, 2010

May 31 – Quiet Delight

Today the Abbess recommends making a start . . . take three minutes at least once today. Set a kitchen timer. Turn off your cell phone (like you do at the movies!), leave your coffee cup in the kitchen and a note on the door “Back in three minutes!”

Settle yourself before Him and look up into His invisible Face. Trouble yourself not at all to try to see or imagine it! You will see Him face-to-face when the time comes. By this effort and endeavor, you will be known among those on earth who, never having laid eyes upon His beautiful countenance, “see Jesus!” (Hebrews 2:9)

Trouble yourself even less when your thoughts wander. Ignore them UTTERLY! Beloved Sisters and Brothers . . . ignore them! Only bring your countenance before His. Enjoy His nearness, only. Experience it, but give the experience no attention whatsoever! Have Him, as truly as He has you in the Father. Stay. Don’t grieve . . . don’t repent . . . this is not that time! Only keep yourself in Him! You can bring nothing to these minutes beyond your desire for Him and your pleasure in Him.

Find in Him a quiet delight that will sustain you throughout the day. Try not to lose it . . . though you will at first. Come again tomorrow . . . and the day after . . . and the day after that. He will be watching . . . waiting . . . for you . . . for us.

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Psalm 27:4

It has been my privilege to compile a "monastic" devotional for everyday life and for women in all walks of life. We take part in this "Cyber Monastery" for the purpose of growth in devotion and the "practice of the Presence of God."

Although we may never meet, we share this cloister and this life through our prayer and worship and small, determined steps in godliness.

Neither Catholicism nor holy orders are required here; this is the most ancient monasticism, the kind that took Anna into the temple in the second chapter of Luke, Moses into the Tent of Meeting, and Paul into seclusion in the early days of his conversion. Within our families and our churches, day and night, alone or in company, we are "marketplace monastics," living to bring pleasure to the heart of God.

Join us - your new "habit" awaits ... here in Cor Unum Abbey.

"One thing have I desired of the Lord; that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple."